Meghan Markle can shut her own car door – so why can’t Prince Charles iron his own shoelaces?

The Duchess of Sussex was spotted shutting her own car door this week during her first solo engagement, at the Royal Academy of Arts. This is apparently significant, with the Sun’s royal correspondent tweeting: “A princess [sic] who still takes the time to shut her car door.” Whether it will happen again remains to be seen, now the strangeness of it has been pointed out, but there are many everyday things the royals – mostly Charles, really – cannot or will not do.

•Carry cash The Queen is rarely seen without her Launer handbag, though it famously never contains any money – except, reportedly, for a neatly folded £5 note, and occasionally a tenner, for the church collection on Sundays.

• Squeeze their own toothpaste One of the enduring stories about Prince Charles is that someone squeezes his toothpaste on to a brush